Jmpstudios's Blog

After asking one of my partners to leave I was left with a huge void in my life and business.  I knew it would create a ton of work and many sleepless nights but I finally concluded that the longer I allowed things to last… the deeper the hole I would dig.  It was very unfortunate that I had to ask him to leave because I truly believe he is a cool guy and also very talented (as long as you DON’T have any kind of business ties with him).  But he was not interested in helping me or my studio succeed and was only interested in learning what he could so he could help himself. I’ve learned that I HAVE to stop being so nice (some people would say naive) to people who are down and out and could use a little jump start.  I always get myself into bad situations where I end up giving and giving and… but never receiving.

Truth is… I will always be nice and will always try to help where I can.  I’ll just be a bit more careful and not be so naive. I’ll also make sure that everything is well communicated.  At the first sign of trouble, I will be sure to throw a flag on the play and NOT proceed until we have come to resolution that is satisfactory for all parties.

My partner was also my “web developer” for my website.  He got the basic structure in place and then sort of left me to figure the rest out. Our agreement was to have a COMPLETE website with full optimization in place in trade for the same value in shared lease expenses. However, he only got the basic structure in place and left me to figure everything else out.  And… I have (had) NO CLUE nor did I have the time to learn! He sort of dropped everything so he could learn MY work and started to be a competitor in my own studio! So… I asked him to leave and then i was completely abandoned on my website. Talk about feeling lost and isolated with no hope… But I have never been one to quit or accept defeat.

I spent many sleepless nights and tons of aggravation but it seems I have finally prevailed.  I HAVE learned how to develop and improve my website and I now have it pretty much nailed down.  I feel so liberated now.  I mean, it set me back a couple of months but hey… it could have been much worse and now I am a stronger & more knowledgeable person because of it.  I see it as a blessing in disguise. I am actually glad all of this happened.

Throughout my life I have had several experiences that have set me back quite a bit but my “never give up” attitude combined with my will to learn has always helped me prevail and be much better off than before my set backs.  These experiences have only made me a stronger person who is more confident in tough situations.

My website is back online, and it is going to be better because now I KNOW how to do the things I want to do with it and I don’t have to wait forever for someone to “decide” to work on it. I felt that I did not have the time to learn how to do it myself but it appears that I did not have the NOT to learn how to do it.

The moral of my story is… never rely on others to do what you KNOW you should just do yourself. Also, mutually beneficial business relationships are supposed to be “mutually beneficial”.  In business… it’s good to make great friends from great business instead of bad business from good friends.

The Cherry Knoll Father Daughter Dance was an event that was put on by the Cherry Knoll  PTO and I believe it is an annual event that I would love to be invited to again over the coming years.  I was amazed at the turnout! And, I had my opportunity to see them all.  All 111 of them…

As you can see all of the ladies and their fathers looked great that evening.  I counted 23 ladies with the same color sparkly blue nail polish on that night.  It seemed odd to me and I couldn’t help myself from thinking that maybe these girls were all at the same sale for sparkly blue nail polish.  But maybe it was just that blue draws my attention the most… I’ll never figure it out. But what I did figure out is that these little ladies ALL spent a great deal of time making themselves ready to go out dancing with their fathers and their fathers spent a little extra time to live up their daughters’ expectations.  They all looked GREAT! Most of my work was done for me already… I just had to pose them and take their picture.

When I took on this gig I was figuring on approximately 30 to 50 Father/Daughter couples but a few days before… I was told that I actually had 97 and counting! I have to admit… I was a little nervous about trying to fit approximately 100 “mini-sessions” into a 3 hr period and make every couple look great.  Do the math… 1.8 minutes per session! It is against my grain to “hurry up and take the picture” and for all practical purposes… that was what I was doing.   But I also had some great help and I implemented a great workflow that I learned from Mike Luter with “Studio Styles” Photography down in Jacksonville Florida. Thank you Mike… You are much deserving of a plug in my blog anytime bro.

My helpers were great too.  I couldn’t process 111 people by myself in 3 hrs.  We had to keep track of every client we shot so that we could send each one of them a 5×7.  That is a lot of information! But the tickets were the key to the whole process (I can explain more later if I find more interest…).

Each session was unique.  You’ll see that there were several common poses throughout the event but typically I  just went with the flow.  There are so many twists and turns people can throw at you.  I don’t want to say “no” to a client… I’d rather try to find an alternate way to meet them on common ground. As you can see… there are a few landscape compositions and change-ups here and there.  But had it not been for my experience and understanding of lighting and composition… I would have had some angry people waiting for me to take their picture late in the 4th and 5th hour.  I would say that 20 to 30 of the young ladies there did not want to have their picture taken and were uncomfortable in front of the camera.  Out of those I would say only 4 or 5 still could not be convinced (in less than 1.8 minutes) that they were comfortable enough to smile or work with me. Kids are kids… and I wished I had more time to work with those 4 or 5 but I’m sure they will look at their images and understand why it is better to just work with the photographer on picture day! But… I think I made even the grumpy ones look good… so no harm.

Some dads were tough too but I think I managed to wrangle them all in… what an honor to be out dancing with your little daughter.  I think that would be a moment that a guy could privately cherish for an entire lifetime. I’m sure that for some (if not most) of these dads this will be the nicest portrait they have of them and their daughters. This is just one of many other reasons why I enjoy photography so much.

Robby and Christi.

This was an awesome young couple and two great families. Shortly after getting married, Robby shipped out to Iraq to serve his country… leaving Christi behind to finish her education in the states. This video was not part of their wedding package but I felt compelled to create it and to say “Thank you” to Robby for …making such a sacrifice on my (and all other American’s) behalf. I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to leave my beautiful… wonderful… wife behind and to be so far away in such a hostile environment. Please come home safe buddy. We look forward to seeing you again.

I’m thinking that ANY person serving our country will be qualified to receive a free video slide-show from JMP Studios.  It seems the least we can do especially considering the sacrifices our military personell make for us every day.  Please come home safe and soon.  We all love you very much.

Our Son Devin.

These are just a few images from Devin’s senior pics and various other events.  I just wanted to show a quick cross section of him over the last 2 years.  He has been playing hockey in Vermont for the last 6 to 7 months and we will be bringing him home  in a couple of weeks.  We REALLY miss him and it will be so good to have him home again.  I can’t believe he is now 18 years old!  WHERE did all the time go?  But i am going to enjoy watching him be a man and it seems like he may be interested in working with me and being part of our studio.  He will be a welcomed gift because he is very artistic and talented.  Perhaps he will play another year or two of hockey in the Juniors?  We don’t know and we don’t care.  It’s just nice to see him grow up to be such a fine young man.  All of our love…

Autumn taking a moment to enjoy the Red Wings Ice Sculpture

Dangerous Juggling expert!

The 100 Block of Front Street (between Union and Cass) was closed last Saturday for the Traverse City Winterfest.  JMP Studio is located right in the center of the 100 block.  There were pleasant aromas of food and spirits in the air as we strolled down the Front Street Corridor.  The weather was actually pretty good (for February in northern Michigan) so it made the experience just that much more fun.  Not to mention the Chocolate Martinis at Phil’s on Front! We saw a lot of kids and families just enjoying themselves as we were too.

Our attention was stolen by this crazy juggler who was actually quite funny and provided a fun and thrilling sho.  He juggled fire and swords while he rode a 6′ tall uni-cycle.  Man… that guy was crazy!  But the kids loved him.

It was a fun event and I’m glad we got out of the studio to go enjoy ourselves at the TC Winterfest.

Horse and Buggy Rides at the Winterfest

Phil's On Front

Thought I would try out this new bloggy thing.  I feel like I HAVE to say something and now my mind is frozen like a naked fat man on stage (not Chris Farley…).  I hope to write some cool stuff about pertaining to photography and my journey of learning digital video.  Most of my stuff will be local to Traverse City Michigan but I tend to travel too so stay tuned.